Annoying Projectors

[mbenonis]

So last night we had our annual "Dram Prom" show, which is essentially a set of skits to make fun of the past season. It's a pretty small/low key show, and we had an audience of maybe 30 people from our department. Anyway, we decided that it would be cool to do two small movies during the performance. We tested everything out twice before the show started, and it appeared to be working fine. Until the video cue went. That was when we discovered that the projector had turned it self off.

Normally this wouldn't be a problem, except that the projector is hanging on a pipe that is mounted about 8 feet below 2 CAT in the middle of the house, about 20 feet up from the house floor (conveniently right under where everyone decided to sit). There are two ways to turn this particular projector on: put on a harness, put up an extension ladder, and go up to it, OR use a broomstick with a yardstick taped it, with a pen taped onto the end. Needless to say, I went for the latter option. I got to run up to the catwalk, lay down on my chest (the pole BARELY reaches), and hold this pole over the audience in an attempt to get the thing to turn on. Fortunately, it worked, and the show went on. But this was definitely one of the craziest things I had to do to save a show...

 

[Grog12]

So....you lost the remote to the projector eh?

 

[Les]

I'll bet eBay has them cheap!

 

[mbenonis]

It's either lost, doesn't reach the projector, or it didn't come with one (it is a pretty old projector). The bottom line is I sure didn't have it!

 

[Clifford]

I really glad our projector is in the booth. Ours turns itself off after a while and it has no remote. We're hoping it will die so we can get a new one with a remote that we can actually cieling mount or some such.

Way to save the show!

 

[mnfreelancer]

I worked a job at a local hotel today where they needed two projectors for "overflow seating" in the hall by the banquet room. The set was a PITA which I won't go into right now, but we got everything wired, aimed and working and were going to take off when I remembered I needed a signature on the rental agreement. Ran back in to find the banquet manager and noticed the two projectors weren't working. The circuit popped for some reason on projector #1 so I plugged it into the outlet next to it and everything started working again. Paperwork actually saved the day for once - if I hadn't gone back in to get that signed they probably would have called the shop for a tech and the client would have lost a lot of their message on the occupants of the overflow seating.

That was kind of a hi-jack but I guess what made me think of it is that the client brought a little DLP projector that had the annoying "feature" of turning itself off when there was no signal - it made setup and aiming kind of a pain...

 

[museav]

Sometimes, but not always, things like automatic power down can be adjusted or disabled in the setup menus.

 

[bobgaggle]

do they make any computer technology for theatres? It seems that everything with a chip in it has some sort of power saving hibrination, sleep mode thing that activates the minute you need the thing to be on and ready to work.

If you flip the switch to turn it on, it should stay on.

 

[mnfreelancer]

With most things you can buy "professional" models that tend to have a lot more features and also are designed with the needs of professionals in mind. You won't find a 10k or 12K projector with an auto-off, just like you'd be hard pressed to find a 3 chip full size camcorder with an auto-off. We used to have problems with Canon GL1 camcorders turning themselves off. It was still a prosumer camera and thus had features to protect itself from its user. We got by it by finding out that if the cam had a tape in it it wouldn't turn off, even if it was not recording. We eventually bought three JVC DV-5000u professional camcorders and had no such "feature" of turning themselves off, no matter what state they were in.

As far as actual computers go, it always seems to be the operating system's fault that your screen goes black right at the climax of the film or the second-to-last slide of a powerpoint. User/operator education is the only solution for this. Learn how to turn off power-saving and "screensaving" features on any computer, windows especially but don't limit yourself. It's also helpful to learn how to teach these techniques to others, even non-professionals, if you aren't going to be around for a show or presentation.